


The Truth that Sticks

by 55sunsets



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Guilt, M/M, Male Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-20
Updated: 2012-11-20
Packaged: 2017-11-19 02:31:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/568056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/55sunsets/pseuds/55sunsets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers for Merlin 5x07!</p><p>After Merlin is arrested, Gwaine has time to think. </p><p>Very slight one-sided Merlin/Gwaine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Truth that Sticks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [timecake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/timecake/gifts).



> Major spoilers for episode 5x07!
> 
> Some missing scenes from the episode, because it was bothering me!
> 
> Rating because there's a swearword stuck in there somewhere.
> 
> Crossposted to Fanfiction.net.

  
_"Betrayal is the only truth that sticks."_ \- Arthur Miller

-

Gwaine was thinking.

If Arthur were here, he'd raise an eyebrow at him. "There's a first time for everything," he would say. But he wasn't here. He was lying in his chambers, dying with the queen by his side.

If Merlin were here, he'd smile at him and tease, "Does it hurt?" he'd ask. But Merlin wasn't here either. Merlin was in the dungeons, and due to be executed in the morning. And Gwaine had helped put him there.

Gwaine frowned and sharpened his sword. It was mindless work that kept his hands busy and his mind free. 

He remembered the look in Merlin's eyes after Gwen had said his name. He looked - he didn't look _surprised_ , that was the thing. He didn't look surprised at being accused of killing the King. He just gazed at Gwen (she was his friend too. How could she even accuse him? Gwaine supposed having one's husband be poisoned would harden anyone's heart). It was as if he KNEW that he was going to be blamed. Merlin always seemed to know things that he shouldn't.

But he wouldn't, that's the thing. He wouldn't kill the King. Arthur was his best mate. He dogged Arthur's steps like a devoted puppy. Of course it wasn't Merlin who poisoned Arthur. And Gwaine had thrown him in the cells anyway. Well, not just him. Leon and Percival and Mordred had too - but that was different. They weren't _Gwaine_. They didn't all owe their current position to Merlin, they didn't know him as well, or trust him as much. Probably. Maybe they were all off thinking the same thing about him.

He did just betray his best friend, after all. 

Gwaine could have defended him, but he didn't.

Lancelot wouldn't have done it. He wouldn't have betrayed Merlin, he would have stood beside him, insisted the truth that they all knew and didn't act on was real. Gwaine still missed him, sometimes. They had been united in their love for Merlin, they would have done anything for him. Gwaine had always known that Lancelot was the better man - not just better than him, better than everyone, better even than Arthur, maybe. But Merlin lay now, in the cells while the noose was prepared, the gallows being pulled out of wherever it was kept, in preparation to be used once again. 

Merlin wouldn't die. Gwaine would save him somehow. 

Gwaine tested the edge of his sword with his thumb, before setting the whetstone down. He attempted to put Merlin out of his mind, just for now, without much success. Merlin hadn't poisoned the King, but the evidence against him - Gwaine had no proof! If it wasn't Merlin, who was it?

He looked out the window. The sun had nearly set. It was time for his patrol of the castle.

Merlin remained in his thoughts for hours, through the patrol. He saw the shadow of the intruder, and for a second he thought _Merlin_ \- but Merlin was in the dungeons and there was an intruder in the castle. They chased him to the courtyard, before losing him. 

The light from the King and Queen's chambers caught his attention - _the Queen!_ She was in danger from the intruder - she was vulnerable at her husband's deathbed. He needed to get her to safety.

It wasn't long later that the intruder vanished from his and everybody else's thoughts. The King was alive! Alive, but weak.

Gwaine was the second back to the King's chambers, running just after Gwen. Arthur was sleeping, but he was moving, and breathing, and the paleness was fading from his face.

"Gaius!" exclaimed Gwaine, pulling the old man into a hug, "You're a miracle worker!"

"I can't take all the credit," he said, and Gwaine wasn't quite sure what he meant by that, but he didn't care. Arthur was alive, and Merlin hadn't killed him, and Arthur could save him, even with the evidence stacked against him. Arthur could, even when Gwaine didn't.

When Arthur finally woke up, the sun was just beginning to rise, bleaching the sky at the horizon.

"Gw'n?" He mumbled.

Gwen had nearly dozed off, in a chair beside the bed, but she awoke with a start.

"Arthur!"

Gwaine couldn't make sense of the expression on her face, but there were tears of relief in her eyes.

"What happened?"

"You were poisoned, Arthur," said Gwen, clutching his hand. "It was-... Arthur, it was Merlin who poisoned you."

That woke Arthur up. He sat up quickly, making Gaius rush over.

"Sire!"

Arthur ignored him, eyes focused only on Gwen. "What?" he whispered, "No!"

"It was him, Arthur."

"No!" Arthur pulled his hand free. "It was not. I don't care what evidence you have against him, it's false." He made to get up, but Gaius stopped him. "I must see him, Gaius!"

"We'll bring him here, sire. You must rest."

Arthur grabbed a bedpost and hauled himself up, as if he were going to march off to the dungeons himself in his nightclothes. He appeared to rethink this plan when he swayed once on his feet. 

"Fine," he gritted out. "Go get him." He looked at Gaius, then Gwaine. "And the rest of you," he looked over Gwaine's shoulder at the rest of the knights. "Go ask round the staff, find where he was during dinner last night. We may as well have an alibi to silence anybody who thinks they know better."

Gwaine rushed out of the room, barely hearing Arthur's requests for Gwen to help him dress, and made his way to the dungeons with Gaius.

-

Merlin's smile when Gaius and Gwaine opened his cell door was the best thing he'd ever seen.

-

When Merlin was leaving the throne room later, after Arthur had praised his queen for unearthing new evidence, Gwaine stopped him.

"Merlin, I..." He paused, trying to find the words, because 'sorry' didn't seem to be quite enough. Merlin just surveyed him with earnest eyes, and reached out to him. Gwaine could feel the living heat of his hand even through his chainmail.

"Are you alright?" And wasn't that just Merlin? Always concerned, even for the people who hadn't trusted him enough and practically handed him to the hangman.

"I'm, look, Merlin," Gwaine put his hands on Merlin"s broad shoulders and squeezed slightly, just to reassure himself that Merlin was FINE, and everyone knew that he was innocent. 

Gwaine licked his lips and continued, "I want to apologise."

Merlin looked honestly bewildered. "For what?"

Gwaine stared at him, "I tossed you in the dungeons! I knew, I _knew_ , that you weren't guilty, I knew that you wouldn't hurt Arthur, and I did it anyway." He averted his eyes, because Merlin was his best friend and Gwaine didn't want to see the look on his face when he realised that Gwaine isn't worth having around any more, when he realised that Gwaine didn't have any other friends when they met for a reason - but Merlin's other arm rose up to Gwaine's shoulder, so they mirrored each other, and Merlin squeezed back.

"Gwaine," Gwaine looked up and Merlin was smiling at him, one of his big smiles that was nearly bigger than his face and that crinkled up his eyes. Fuck but Gwaine loved that smile.

"You did what you had to," Merlin said, "I mean, the Queen gave the order and she was the one in charge-”

Gwaine furrowed his brow slightly, because there was something about the way Merlin said 'The Queen', and he tucked it away to think about later, because Merlin was still talking and smiling.

"- but I knew that you wouldn't believe it was me. I knew that you wouldn't. And that's what matters."

Gwaine wonders how he's managed to find such good people. Merlin, who smiled at him and always believed that he was more than what he appeared to be, and Arthur, who always trusts in the people he cares about, even when he's been betrayed before. And Gwaine knows, truly knows, that he's the luckiest man alive.


End file.
